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What a mess.

My son goes swimming training on Mondays after school. I do laps in the outdoor pool while he goes in the indoor pool to get changed and do his hour of swimming. Last Monday, just as I was ready to jump in (no feeling the water with my toes... it's heated but the first half lap can be refreshing in the winter), he runs out to me. I thought he forgot his goggles but no, he came to tell me that when he got changed and he threw his shirt up in the air onto the heating element (huh?) which melted his school shirt. It was expensive and is very poor quality. (some background: The uniforms used to be made by a company just around the corner from me by local people in a local business that has been around a long time who give very good service, quite good quality and are reasonably priced. A large company  has started a business whereby they go into schools selling an idea that the schools sell the uniforms as a fund raising exercise - something I am totally opposed to - the representatives of the uniform company know nothing about the uniforms or fabric or sizing. We had to order them in November last year to receive them in April this year. When we went to the office to try on and order they had no sizes to try on so you had to guess about what size they should be for 6 months later. Many parents are very cross. Most had to return the shirts as they were so large they would have fit grown men instead of 11 year of children. I couldn't be bothered as I could take it in myself - about 8 cm out of the width and 6 cm off the hem.) So you can see why I was very cross. 

Nevertheless, I still had to save it to last the rest of the year. They have the names of the grade 6 on the back so we only got one. As I had cut a good width off the hem just the week before (I wasn't quick about my size modification) I made my son go into the bin (yeah, he was pretty happy about that) to get the scrap so I could piece it under the holes.  I had to cut the melted hard bits off and cut some patches to put under the holes. I had to cut a small patch of yellow to repair the shield shape on the front so it wouldn't look too obvious (hardly). I put some iron on interfacing over it on the inside to hold the pieces in place and support the stitches and then just zig zagged it on. I matched the yellow thread too.  



It looks better than I expected it to look to be honest and I'm glad I could do a reasonable job of patching. I'm still cross but mostly because anyone looking at it will think his mother melted it under the iron! Have you had any ridiculous repairs? 

I have a few other things still on the go. The Ottobre jacket is still just waiting for the zip - I tried putting it in but the fabric is so stretchy that it would just wrinkle up and look disgusting so I need to interface but I'm not sure if even this will be enough so I'm thinking. I'm finishing the cape with just button holes to do but having some issues with machines and buttons which I'll discuss when I blog it (hopefully this weekend) and I've traced a few things from Burda that I really like and have the mags from the library at the moment so hopefully I get lots done tomorrow as we have a busy weekend again. 

Happy sewing.

Comments

Summer said…
Looks good. Great save!
katherine h said…
Time for schools to return to local production, methinks
BeaJay said…
Did a good job at that repatching. Well done! Crazy buying uniforms so far in advance.
Judith said…
Hey! Long time, no chat! But as a State School teacher I feel your pain - if you repair like this several schools/parents will pay you! And being a Year 6 shirt you just had to save it, last year as a Primary School boy, your lovely son is growing up quickly ... Judith
Kyle said…
Wow, you really can't make that kind of story up.
Kyle said…
I meant to add, nice job patching it up; I also enjoyed that your son rescued the scrap out of the bin so you could repair it. Make do and mend!
Sue said…
When you have boys you certainly learning about darning and repairing clothing!
CarmencitaB said…
Good job! then I take a Sharpie to the darken the white bits.

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